Pat Robertson: Eric Bolling Suspension May Be Part Of A Plot Against Fox News

Pat Robertson says Fox News’ decision to suspend popular Specialists host Eric Bolling following allegations of sexual harassment might be part of a larger plan to damage the network.

Robertson, who founded the Christian Broadcasting Network, speculated on CBN’s The 700 Club on Monday that liberals may be seeking to decimate Fox News by taking out its most popular personalities one by one.

According to a story published on Friday in the Huffington Post, Bolling sent unsolicited lewd text messages with a photo of male genitalia to at least two female Fox colleagues “several years ago.”

The women told HuffPo that they recognized the number as Bolling’s. One of the women replied to the text, saying she did not want such photos sent ever again. The sender did not respond.

Robertson said it would be easy to text false messages to people if you wanted to ruin someone’s reputation.

“If you wanted to destroy the Fox News, you really wanted to destroy them, what would you do?” Robertson asked. “Well, you would send some salacious material, ostensibly from one of their popular co-hosts or hosts and you’d send it out and then get it publicized and then you have some woman complain that she had gotten this salacious material from this particular co-host.”

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“(T)hey got rid of (Bill) O’Reilly, who was the top getting of audience, the most popular host they had. Of course, they got rid of Roger Ailes, the architect who put it all together,” Robertson continued. “It’s so easy to do now. I’m not a conspiracy theorist, but it’s so easy to see what’s being done. I think it’s a terrible shame. Fox had better cinch up, gird up their loins; people are going after them. Anybody can send a salacious piece of literature.”

Ailes, the founder of FNC, was forced to resign last summer following multiple allegations of sexual harassment. O’Reilly was removed from the air in April after The New York Times ran a story claiming O’Reilly and the network had paid a combined $13 million in settle sexual harassment suits brought by five women starting in the early 2000s.

Robertson prefaced his comments by saying he did “not have a lot of first-hand information, so I may be off the wall on it.”

“The story is based on anonymous sources and not true,” Bowe said. “No such unsolicited communications occurred.”

“Mr. Bolling recalls no such inappropriate communications, does not believe he sent any such communications, and will vigorously pursue his legal remedies for any false and defamatory accusations that are made,” Bowe said.